Writing 101 began this August as my first college class. I walked in the room full of strangers and took my seat in the back not sure of what was to come. But as the class went on I could tell this would actually be a class I could enjoy, which says a lot for me. Looking at my blog posts from what seems like forever ago, it surprises me how much I have grown as a writer and a student.
I have learned anything, it’s that procrastination has always been my greatest issue. I have constantly put off assignments until the last possible chance to do them. This has been an issue not only in this class, but throughout my life. I was planning on saving my late pass and getting the extra points, but on the argumentative essay I had to use it because I put it off until the last minute and didn’t finish in time. It is frustrating to me because I could have used those extra points now that the semester is over. This shows how I always look at the short term benefits (such as having an extra weekend to work on one assignment), as opposed to the long term ones.
The one assignment that will stick with me the most is the rhetorical analysis assignment. I learned the most from that essay. The lectures stuck with me and I feel as though that paper was the best work I did this semester. Now that I know how rhetorical analysis works, I will be able to detect a piece’s ethos, pathos, and logos with ease.
The tag cloud shows me how the writing process really stuck out to me this semester. In high school, I would wait until the night before (exemplifying my chronic procrastination problem), and then write the entire paper all at once. This class has showed me how writing is all a process. Writing a piece in multiple days, doing gallery walks, and peer reviews was something new to me. It really improved my writing skills and showed me exactly what I am capable of when I commit myself to my work. That is how my argumentative essay became my best work so far this year.
Overall, at the beginning of the year I was very skeptical of the EdBlogs. I was not sure I was going to be able to write about what was going on in my life, but now that it is December and I can look back over it all, I am glad that we did it. It is a very cool idea and I cannot wait to keep writing until May.
Tags: Process, Procrastination, EdBlogs, Rhetorical Analysis, Future
I really appreciate your reflections here, Ben, especially on the blog space itself in your conclusion. I think it helps to see how beneficial it can be to reflect frequently, and it will make for even deeper reflections come spring (now that you know the end goal of these reflections).
I also appreciate your remarks on the late pass as an example of some of the character flaws you see in yourself. I think a lot of us think short term instead of long term, but may I point out that you also felt the most success in your argument paper. Maybe you needed that extra time to work on the process.
Overall, I believe a lot of these lessons will serve you well as you enter 102!